Effects of the duration of expressions on the recognition of microexpressions

Abstract

Abstract:Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the duration of expressions on the recognition of microexpressions, which are closely related to deception. Methods: In two experiments, participants were briefly (from 20 to 300 ms) shown one of six basic expressions and then were asked to identify the expression. Results: The results showed that the participants' performance in recognition of microexpressions increased with the duration of the expressions, reaching a turning point at 200 ms before levelling off. The results also indicated that practice could improve the participants' performance. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the proper upper limit of the duration of microexpressions might be around 1/5 of a second and confirmed that the ability to recognize microexpressions can be enhanced with practice.

Investigating Macroexpressions and Microexpressions in Computer Graphics Animated Faces

“…The second influential paper is by Shen et al (Shen et al, 2012), which tested two experimental methodologies they called the BART (Brief Affect Recognition Test) condition and the METT (Microexpression Training Tool) paradigm, based on Ekman's work (Ekman & Friesen, 1974) and (Ekman, 2002). The BART condition consisted of showing the six universal expressions after a fixation point (BART), and in the METT paradigm the universal expressions are exhibited between two neutral face sequences.…”

“…For both experiments, the participants had to say which emotion they perceived. In (Shen et al, 2012), they tried different ranges of expression exhibition times (from 40ms to 300ms) using BART and METT and investigated the possible upper limit to microexpression duration. They concluded that above 160ms identification accuracy begins to stabilize, indicating an upper limit to the microexpressions (i.e., differentiating them from the macroexpressions).…”

“…Our results show that most of the participants recognized the foreground (macro) emotion and most of the time they perceived the presence of the second (micro) emotion in the animations, although they did not identify it correctly in some samples. This experiment exposes the benefits of conveying microexpressions in computer graphics characters, as they may visually enhance a character's emotional depth through subliminal microexpression cues, and consequently increase the perceived social complexity and believability (Shen, Wu, & Fu, 2012). The second experiment verifies if participants could perceive and identify primary and secondary emotions in virtual faces.…”

“…Currently, microexpressions have been investigated mostly in the context of lying and deception detection (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2011;Porter & ten Brinke, 2008, 2010Vrij, Granhag, & Porter, 2010). Other studies investigate the human capability to perceive, consciously or unconsciously, microexpressions and the role they play in communication and human behavior (Bornemann, Winkielman, & van der Meer, 2011;Shen et al, 2012;W. Li, Zinbarg, Boehm, & Paller, 2008).…”

“…In this context, this paper explores users' perception of hidden emotions in virtual faces, inspired by recent psychological experiments (Bornemann et al, 2011;Shen et al, 2012). We investigate the hypothesis that facial microexpressions (at some subliminal presentation level) can subtly suggest a second emotion to a user even when embedded in a neutral or conflicting facial expression.…”